Philip Schaff's Popular Commentary (4 vols)

Revelation 12:7-9

Revelation 12:7-9. With the words of Revelation 12:7 the second scene of the chapter opens, and the transition from the ideal to the actual begins. As the first scene, too, corresponded to the first paragraph of the Prologue of the Fourth Gospel (Revelation 12:1-5), so this scene corresponds to its second paragraph (Revelation 12:6-13). It is not enough that the light shall withstand the darkness. It has also to assault and overcome it. Hence it is that Michael and his angels are the first to move; and hence in all probability the remarkable grammatical construction of Revelation 12:7 in the original, a construction which seems intended to bring out this thought.

The war opens in heaven. No explanation is afforded of our finding evil there; nor is there greater difficulty in conceiving of evil in heaven than in admitting its existence upon earth. All things are primarily good and pure and holy. Such is the fundamental idea of existence; but this idea is disturbed by sin. The good is not perfectly unmixed; and, without knowing how the evil originated, we are compelled to acknowledge that it exists. Traces of the same teaching as that found here are to be seen in 1 Kings 22; Job 1:2; Zechariah 3; and in the words of Jesus, of which this whole scene is a symbolical representation, ‘I beheld Satan fallen as lightning from heaven' (Luke 10:18). The war begun is conducted on the one side by Michael and his angels, on the other by the dragon and his angels. The mention of Michael is taken from Daniel 10:13; Daniel 10:21; Daniel 12:1; comp. Jude 1:9. He is certainly not Jesus Himself, nor is he merely a created angel to whose guardianship the Church is committed. He is rather an expression of Jesus, an aspect (if we may so speak), a representation, of the Divine good embodied in Him; and His angels are the varied agencies belonging to that good and executing its designs. The ‘dragon' is next more completely identified by a description consisting of three particulars. First, he is the old serpent, a reference to the history of the fall. Secondly, he is he that is called the devil and Satan, the former of these terms denoting the deceiver (chap. Revelation 20:8), the second the accuser (Revelation 12:10), of the saints. Thirdly, he is he that deceiveth the whole inhabited world, the world with all its inhabitants, and not simply them that ‘dwell upon the earth.' Not that he succeeds in eventually betraying all. But even the saints he endeavours to deceive. He tempts them as he tempted our Lord in the wilderness. When the war has been continued for a time, the dragon is not only defeated, but no place is found for him any more in heaven. He was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him. The victory of good over evil is complete. It may be well to notice that, if the devil is thus cast out of heaven, out of the assembly of the saints, he must have been originally good. Had he not been so he would never have been in heaven, but would have ruled from a past eternity in some realm of his own.

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Philip Schaff's Popular Commentary (4 vols)

Revelation 12:7-9

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